well i'm a little dissapointed because i tried downloading it on a brand new computer, every other game we have played *except lord of the rings which i have NEVER got to work anywhere* has ran perfectly, but whenever i try to run the demo it just stays stuck on the big picture of the devils. i have to use the crtl-alt-delete method to get it to close, if i can even get to the task manager once it's open cuz that devil takes up the whole screen and doesnt minimize. if i get the start bar to become visible there is a bar that says error, but i cant read what the error is because the devil face wont get out of the way and the error wont come to the top.. what is up with that? i have all the minimum requirements, some over the minimum, and i made sure i had direct x 9.0.. still nothing. i was looking forward to this so much too!

I am impressed and a little worried by the Demo. I think that Nival have really captured what heroes is all about - I talk from an experianced point of view having played heroes 1 - 4 (3 was better than 4 but 4 was not that bad) I love the way combat is now working and think that the skills system is fantastic if slightly confusing without Sfidanza's excellent work.

I worry because I had to turn everything down to the absolute minimum in options to get it to run reasonably well. I don't look forward to forking out the cash that I must to be able to play one of my favorite games.
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So I've played the demo extensively now and I'd like to point some things out:

*The Sylvan town is amazingly powerful and is almost impossible to beat. When you combine its magic negation with the Treant tanks and for firepower, throw in their ranged units, it is extremely difficult to compete.

*The Paladin's ability to charge across the field for the first turn of the game is quite powerful...so powerful infact, that it's downright unfair. You have to be lucky and end up aligning him with the unit that you want to kill but regardless, it's almost guaranteed that you'll take out a stack. Furthermore, once the rest of the opponents army has pelted the paladin with melee, the Angel just resurrects them - uber cheap!

*The most abominable atrocity of all ... is the sorry state that the Necropolis has been reduced too...almost makes me want to cry. H3 produced a necropolis which was unparalleled in power and cheapness of units. It's pilar units (the vamp lords and liches), made up for the weakness of all the other units. H5 has come out and taken away the only stregth that the Necros had. The vamp lord has been significantly weakened and the dread night has been removed!
It's a downright crime and this castle will cease to be a powerhouse or be used by anyone in combat. The lords are relatively slow and drain a lot less life. The wight, or whatever it is that does "drain life", is a pathetically weak/slow 6 level unit. The Ghost would be decent had it had higher speed/initiative. Basically this castle has nothing going for it anymore and I'm extremely distrought. I still plan on playing Necro but think that it will be a losing battle almost every time.

quote:
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The most abominable atrocity of all ... is the sorry state that the Necropolis has been reduced too...almost makes me want to cry. H3 produced a necropolis which was unparalleled in power and cheapness of units. It's pilar units (the vamp lords and liches), made up for the weakness of all the other units. H5 has come out and taken away the only stregth that the Necros had. The vamp lord has been significantly weakened and the dread night has been removed!
It's a downright crime and this castle will cease to be a powerhouse or be used by anyone in combat. The lords are relatively slow and drain a lot less life. The wight, or whatever it is that does "drain life", is a pathetically weak/slow 6 level unit. The Ghost would be decent had it had higher speed/initiative. Basically this castle has nothing going for it anymore and I'm extremely distrought. I still plan on playing Necro but think that it will be a losing battle almost every time.
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lol

if you are talking about duel mode, the necros are really weak, but i still can defeat heaven, dungeon and academy with necros (it is tricky, but possible)

if you are talking about singe you are totally WRONG, necros still rule, in first beta I was able to gather 2.5k sceleton archers (in 1 on 1 map) by the time i faced enemy hero. How many turns do you think it took me to crash his heaven army? One shot - one stack is down. (i had archery, battle frenzy, cold steel,chilling bones and Necklace of the Bloody Claw, but im pretty shure i would still win even without all of those)

Necropolis isn't that weak as it could look... Of course it's weak when you take 1vs1 unit fight, but Necropolis generates alot more units than any other town... (Hint: 3 Level 7/ week). Necromancy isn't key feature anymore, as it was nerfed in way to make it balanced (since 2,5 k skeletons isn't very balanced if you play med map, which could result in Necromancy ban, and since it's core skill, that means Necropolis ban from online tournaments). Vampires have high initiative, Liches cast spells and does ranged area attack, Wratihs can kill enemies with single ability without enemy retaliation.

Also I don't think that you should decide on town's strength only from demmo duels, as the presets are not completely fair balanced...

And Nival will continue to balance Heroes when it's released with patches.
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Firstly, I'd like to say that I don't agree with you on the
fact that the inferno was the worst in H3...
I thought it was the 3rd best town after Necropolis and Dungeon,
because it had relatively cheap units that were able to inflict
significant damage ... If you forget crap like the demons (useless),
and the magogs which hit their own units with the fireball...

H5 has completely solved any defficiencies that the Inferno may
have had and in fact has made it 1 of the best if not the best castle
in the game. Here are answers to your questions along with reasons for why this castle pwns:

*The gating ability is unparalleled...letting you nearly double your
army at the price of 1 turn per unit (to activate gating). It is extrememly cheap and lets you gate wherever you want (i.e right beside the enemy archers)

*The imps are EXTREMELY powerful units ... they are probably the biggest concern among ppl playing the Demo because they steal an un-godly amount of mana and furthermore are amazingly powerful in numbers.

*Horned demons are still a joke and suck badly; granted, I have not used their self-destruct ability because I didnt feel like wasting a whole stack of units, but that might be something useful to consider.

*The succubus is sooooo freaking amazing. Ok, so it retaliates against ranged attacks (sweeeet), it's initiative is decent, and when you upgrade it, it's attack work like chained lightning ... OMFG!

*The nightmares are dissapointing because they're pretty weak. Much weaker then unicorns and don't have a charge bonus for some reason; their fear ability is useful but rarely goes off and for a lvl 5, I'm not pleased

*The Pit Lords or Balors are very good. I've read criticism that sais that they are way too powerful. I happen to disagree with that. Ppl say that as as spellcaster, their attack is amazing and is cheap - utter nonsense. The fact is that the balor can only has about 2-3 spells for the whole combat so they are not as powerful as ppl make them out to be. Furthermore, they are VERY slow and almost never get to do melee attack. I'm not quite sure regarding the vorpal blade but when I was finally able to get close to a unit with the balor, they were vaporized!

*The Devil is slightly underpowered...in my opinion. He does not have the "no enemy retaliation" ablity anymore and that was it's biggest asset. The devil is able to summon balors though...which is very good. His movement is not spectacular and I don't beleive he's able to teleport to any point on the map but I may be wrong.

*The buildings are normal I guess...nothing special...although when you're defending against a seige, a particularly useful building is the 1 that increases your gating ability by 30% ... fantastical!

*Regarding fire magic...sweet mother...yes...they are pretty much built around fire magic. You can imbue your creatures with fire so that their attacks do fire damage and there are all sorts of abilities wich augment that skill.

Overall, I'd say that this castle is amazingly good and few out there can match it's power. The sylvan army could quite possibly be up to the challenge but it depends on how well both heroes are levelled. I hope i've eased your worries and assure you that you'll wreak ungodly carnage with the H5 INFERNO!!!
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~Dima

Quote:
H5 has completely solved any defficiencies that the Inferno may
have had and in fact has made it 1 of the best if not the best castle
in the game.

Yeah, it's so good it MUST be turned down in the final release.

Quote:*The gating ability is unparalleled...letting you nearly double your
army at the price of 1 turn per unit (to activate gating). It is extrememly cheap and lets you gate wherever you want (i.e right beside the enemy archers)

It's not cheap, it's for free! The problem is every Inferno unit has the ability and can summon ("gate") reinforcements anywhere on the battlefield. This is too powerful, as it means a significantly larger army than the one that actually entered the combat. It resembles the Heroes IV summoning spells; the summoned creatures soaked up the damage and some provided vital boost to your superheroes. However, the summoning used to take place next to the spellcaster, not in front of the opponent's archers.

Quote:*The imps are EXTREMELY powerful units ... they are probably the biggest concern among ppl playing the Demo because they steal an un-godly amount of mana and furthermore are amazingly powerful in numbers.

Melee wise, they are as weak as they used to be. I agree about their mana-stealing ability though - I guess we should enjoy it until the developers decide to balance it!

Quote:*Horned demons are still a joke and suck badly; granted, I have not used their self-destruct ability because I didnt feel like wasting a whole stack of units, but that might be something useful to consider.

They do NOT self-destruct.

Quote:*The succubus is sooooo freaking amazing. Ok, so it retaliates against ranged attacks (sweeeet), it's initiative is decent, and when you upgrade it, it's attack work like chained lightning ... OMFG!

In the custom scenario available in the demo, you get to play a hero with Succubus specialty, so I might be wrong - but I thought they were GREAT! Aside from aforementioned Chain Shot, they also have Ranged Retaliation. Luckily for me, the AI was stupid enough to attack my 130+ Succubi with a dozen of his Marskmen...!

Quote:*The nightmares are dissapointing because they're pretty weak. Much weaker then unicorns and don't have a charge bonus for some reason; their fear ability is useful but rarely goes off and for a lvl 5, I'm not pleased

Just like Cerberi, Nightmares are fine in the early game, but I agree they're too weak for the final showdown. On the other hand, they are good for distraction and gating.

Quote:*The Pit Lords or Balors are very good. I've read criticism that sais that they are way too powerful. I happen to disagree with that. Ppl say that as as spellcaster, their attack is amazing and is cheap - utter nonsense. The fact is that the balor can only has about 2-3 spells for the whole combat so they are not as powerful as ppl make them out to be. Furthermore, they are VERY slow and almost never get to do melee attack. I'm not quite sure regarding the vorpal blade but when I was finally able to get close to a unit with the balor, they were vaporized!

As they occupy four slots, I place them next to my Succubi. The Meteor Shower can actually hit a large number of stacks, dealing a decent damage. Then they are left with enough mana to weaken your opponent's essential stack and finally perform gating (there's that word again ). I prefer to keep them in the back as they are slow indeed, but excellent spellcasters and guards.

Quote:*The Devil is slightly underpowered...in my opinion. He does not have the "no enemy retaliation" ablity anymore and that was it's biggest asset. The devil is able to summon balors though...which is very good. His movement is not spectacular and I don't beleive he's able to teleport to any point on the map but I may be wrong.

Summoning rulez! I've just raised 5 Pit Lords from a bunch of used Imps by 5 Devils. ____________